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Murray Set For Surgery

Posted Nov 27, 2012
by Aaron Portzline

Ryan Murray will have surgery next month to repair a torn labrum, suffered when he dislocated his left shoulder while playing in a Western Hockey League game. The recovery will take 4 to 6 months, meaning he'll miss the IIHF World Junior Championships and likely the rest of the season.

"Well, the timing is terrible," Murray told The Dispatch this morning. "It sucks that I'm going to miss the World Juniors and that I'll never get that opportunity again. It's really hard to find a positive in this. I'll keep on the rehabilitation and do the best I can to get ready for next season. But that's the best I can do right now."

Murray was having trouble with the shoulder long before he collided with Victoria's Logan Nelson on Nov. 16.

"I got hit last February and I felt it kind of pull," Murray said. "That's when I think it started, but I didn't think anything of it. It just kind of went away. It got sore a bit in the summer when I was working out, but I tried to stay on top of it. I didn't think it was a big deal."

Murray went through the IIHF World Championships with no problem. He made it through the highly invasive NHL scouting combine in June without the shoulder becoming an issue, showing equal strength in both arms. None of the many NHL clubs who interviewed him at the combine asked about his shoulder, Murray said, and he -- not thinking of it as an injury, per se -- didn't mention it.

The Blue Jackets were first alerted that his shoulder was sore at development camp after the draft in July, but it was considered a minor annoyance. But Murray said the shoulder had been getting increasingly sore so far this season with Everett (WHL), to the point where he had an MRI scheduled for Nov. 20 ... four days after the injury occured.

"I've seen doctors throughout the year, and they thought maybe I had a torn labrum already," Murray said. "It was strong and I had range of motion, but they told me if I got hit I had a chance of dislocating it. I had good strength. It was just as strong as the other one, so the thought was that I could play through. It just got beat up worse and worse I guess.

"I had some clicking going on in there as we got deeper in the season. It was in the back of my mind that something was wrong."

Murray and his agent, Rick Valette, are deciding which doctor will do the surgery. The Cleveland Clinic, which has performed several shoulder surgeries on NHL players -- including Blue Jackets center Derick Brassard and former Jacket Dan Fritsche -- is a possibility, Murray said. They're waiting to do surgery in mid-December so the swelling around the joint can subside.

The minutes after the injury were the most painful of his life, Murray said. As he fell backward awkwardly after slamming into Nelson, Murray put his left arm behind him to break his fall. His arm popped out of joint and stayed that way until he got to the emergency room more than 30 minutes later.

"The doctor at the rink wanted to put it back in place, but I wouldn't let him touch me," Murray said. "When I got to the emergency room, they put me under before putting it in place. They didn't have those drugs at the rink."

Blue Jackets GM Scott Howson met with Murray this morning to finalize plans both pre- and post-operation. Murray will return home to Saskatchewan for Christmas, then return to Columbus in January to begin a lengthy rehabilitation.

Murray made it clear repeatedly that Nelson's hit was clean. He also said he'd heard from several of his would-be Team Canada teammates who will head to Ufa, Russia, next month without him in search of the gold medal.

"Obviously this is disappointing," Howson said. "We have to move forward now. We have a clear answer on what needs to be done. We'll make sure he gets the proper medical care and attention, and we'll get him healthy as soon as we can. He's a huge part of our franchise."

The Blue Jackets drafted Murray with the No. 2 overall pick last June, delighted that the Edmonton Oilers drafted forward Nail Yakupov No. 1 overall and let Murray fall to Columbus. The Blue Jackets rejected an enormous trade offer from the New York Islanders -- all seven of the Islanders picks in the 2012 draft -- that would have dropped the Blue Jackets back to No. 3 on the draft board.

"Obviously there was something going on with the shoulder as far back as last season," Howson said. "The tests prior to the draft did not reveal anything, but there was an issue in there that got worse over time. It's too bad that Ryan has to go through this, but he'll get through this, and he should be 100 percent ready for next season."

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